We thought he was living in a cave in the mountains near the border of Afghanistan. We thought he was dead and that his followers were keeping his death a secret. How was it possible for a 6'5" tall Arab with a turban and kidney problems needing dialysis to stay hidden for so long? After nearly ten years on the lam Osama Bin Laden had become inconsequential, a mere figurehead, the terrorist equivalent of a musical one-hit wonder. His death, which was somewhat anti-climatic, may provide closure for some Americans, but the changes brought about by what happened on September 11, 2001, will be felt for generations to come. It was not so much what Bin Laden did on that fateful day, but what the United States government and the American people did in response. Here are some of the negative consequences of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon:

1. THE IRAQ WAR never would have been fought if it hadn't been for 9/11. George W. Bush and his neocon supporters used the fear of a "mushroom cloud" to coerce the United States Congress into sanctioning an attack on Saddam Hussein. The hawks in our government effectively used the "patriotism card," suggesting that opposition to war was unpatriotic. If you loved this country you had to believe the very shaky evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction which could be used on the US, and President Bush's people implied that Saddam was heavily involved in 9/11. In the days leading up to the war vote, polls indicated that the majority of Americans believed Saddam and Osama Bin Laden were partners in the attack on this country. In reality, the religiously fanatical Bin Laden had contempt for the secular Saddam Hussein, but if a story is told often enough an outright lie becomes the truth.

The results of our quixotic venture into Iraq are well-documented, and there are only a few ideologues on the political right who will defend the war and refuse to admit it was a horrible mistake. We have lost approximately fifty percent more American military personnel (4452) since the 2003 invasion than were lost in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (2996). We have had 32,000 troops wounded, 20% with serious brain and spinal injuries, and 30% of returning veterans develop serious mental problems shortly after returning home. The cost of the war is nearing one trillion dollars, but that doesn't factor in the future costs of the health care of these wounded young warriors, some of whom will require taxpayer-funded treatment for fifty years or more. That is a staggering, incalculable cost, and part of the legacy of Osama Bin Laden.

2. THE 2004 RE-ELECTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH can be directly traced to 9/11. John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, could never shake the verbal faux pas he made when he said he "voted for the (Iraq) war funding before he voted against it," thereby cementing his image as a "flip-flopper." His confusion on these Senate votes was a result of his desire to be viewed as patriotic in the fight against terrorism. Even though Kerry was a decorated Vietnam War combat veteran, his Republican opponents controlled the campaign for weeks by challenging whether he actually deserved his Purple Heart decoration or if he had a self-inflicted wound. This in spite of the fact that both of their candidates, President Bush and Vice-president Cheney, had avoided going to Vietnam.

In the 2008 election, Hillary Clinton was hampered in the primaries because of her vote to fund the Iraq War, and this was a factor in why she didn't get the nomination over Barack Obama, who was on record as being against the war. As it turned out, Hillary would have been our first female president, because there is little doubt she would've rolled over the hapless John McCain in the general election.

3. THE SUPREME COURT would have a decidedly different makeup had George W. Bush lost his re-election bid. Bush nominated two very conservative justices, John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Both men are relatively young and could shape social issues in America for the next thirty or forty years. Instead of all the 5-4 votes in the court decided in favor of conservatives, the country would have had two liberal justices appointed had Kerry become president. Roberts and Alito are backward enough to overturn Roe v. Wade and vote against gay marriage, along with the dynamic duo of Antonin Scalia and his puppet, Clarence Thomas.

4. THE PATRIOT ACT, which violated our civil rights, would not have existed without the 9/11 fear-mongering used by Republicans to get these unconstitutional laws passed. Too many Americans were willing to accept this, forgetting the words of Benjamin Franklin who said, "those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither."

5. ISLAMOPHOBIA and the stereotyping of all Muslims as terrorists can be traced to what happened on 9/11. There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, and a great many Americans believe every one of them is a terrorist. They say things like "all Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." Earlier this year Republican Congressman Peter King held McCarthy-like hearings in Washington targeting Muslim Americans.

6. AIR TRAVEL will never be the same because of 9/11. This country is the worst country in the world when it comes to the unnecessary hassling of passengers in airline terminals. Travelers from other countries have reported they don't have to remove their shoes in order to get through security, a ridiculous mandate begun in the US because one deranged would-be terrorist put explosives in his shoes. As a result, millions of people of all ages and physical conditions have to take off their footwear in order to get on a plane. We should consider ourselves lucky that the "shoe-bomber" didn't stash the explosives in his rectum instead.

Osama Bin Laden's legacy was the Iraq War, the re-election of George W. Bush, a majority of conservative Supreme Court justices, the defeat of Hillary Clinton, the Patriot Act, racial profiling of Muslims and Arabs, utterly ridiculous airline security, and, ironically for him, the election of Barack Obama, the man who had him killed.

Carlo Baldino taught high school English in the Worcester public schools for many years. Following his retirement he won two first-place journalism awards given by the New England Press Association, one for educational coverage and the other for coverage of a racial or ethnic issue. He is a former board member of the Worcester chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and worked as an adjunct professor at Quinsigamond Community College. He is currently a member of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.